My Cure for Sleeplessness

[Grauntie Mag]

I often wake in the early hours and find it difficult to get back to sleep. I usually get up, have chamomile tea and do a crossword, then go back to bed, try to think of boring things and then I sleep. I think I may have found a way of going back to sleep without getting up.
A friend told me about a relation who is a vegan, does not eat any cooked food and has had a colostomy! I imagined I had to provide a three course meal for this person. I was asleep very quickly!!
If you have a sleep problem, what do you do?

[Mimi]

Grauntie nothing seems to work for me. I've tried the 'counting sheep' trick but in my crazy mind instead of having a flock of sheep jumping over a gate , this gate is flat bang in the middle of a field so the one sheep jumps the gate , runs around it and jumps again or failing that it jumps the gate and runs away.
Also it's impossible to turn off the insane 'chatter' that goes on in my mind as soon as my head hits the pillow, off it goes!
I've tried the deep breathing/meditation that we use in our yoga class which works wonderfully when I'm in class but not when I am in bed ! So any tips would be most welcome.

[Oma]

I have no problem going to sleep it's the staying asleep that gets me , 20 minutes and I'm wide awake so I get up have a cup of tea and like you I do my puzzle book channel hop on TV usually watch the shopping channel see what crap they selling . I stopped coming onto laptop it was making my mind too active . I have tried most things nothing works ,

[Grauntie Mag]

My 'desperate measures' solution is a co codamol with the chamomile tea, crossword and anything else that hasn't been done already, a hot wheat bag and lavender oil massaged into temples and wrists. That definitely works for me!

[Daisy]

It's really infuriating when you know you're tired but can't get to sleep or keep waking up. I'm lucky enough not to suffer from it often, and can usually trace it back to a late meal or too much caffeine too late, but what I do it set myself a mental task. I try to design something in my head - a house or other building, a garden - whatever I can think of. The mental effort drives other thoughts away and the impossibility of what I'm trying to do sends me to sleep pretty quickly. I suppose it's a variation of GM's impossible task of providing the 3 course meal.

You could also try thinking up a story for our Story Challenge.

[Gemini]

Last night I had a night like Oma has. Fell asleep really quickly, hardly read any of my book. Woke up an hour or less later, lay awake for 3 or 4 hours!!

Sometimes imagining something cosy works for me! Being in a warm and dry tent with rain lashing outside is one. Being in a sleeping carriage of a train as it rattles along is another. I have experienced neither of these, by the way! Nights like last night nothing works though.

[Elisi]

Dreadful sleeper here too Worse as I get older. Tried everything, and only one thing works which I only use in emergency as it has chemicals in which have been found to affect the brain badly and that is Night Nurse.

My late sister used to go for Benylin none of which you can take regularly as it all builds up. Better than resorting to addictive sleeping pills though.

[WeeGranny]

'This works: Sleep' usually helps me. They do a deep calm pillow spray which smells wonderful and a breathe in roll on which you put on your pulse points. Not cheap, but might help. I think Boots sells them. It's the waking up I have problems with!!!

[Daisy]

Sometimes imagining something cosy works for me! Being in a warm and dry tent with rain lashing outside is one. Being in a sleeping carriage of a train as it rattles along is another. I have experienced neither of these, by the way! Nights like last night nothing works though.

I also sometimes picture being on a hot sunny beach with the sea lapping quietly nearby - St Petersburg in Florida or Cayo Guillermo in Cuba are the favourites. Gem - we often used to travel down to the south of France by train, overnight couchettes (not as posh as wagons lit but still great) and the rhythm is very soothing. I hope your tent doesn't blow away!

WG - I remember someone telling me this was the best thing they'd ever tried.

[Grauntie Mag]

We did too Daisy, for 10 years. Frejus was our destination. I could never sleep then either, even though I was very comfortable.🙄

[Daisy]

GM - we usually went to Avignon, but even the thought of sleeping on the couchette can lull me to sleep. It was a brilliant service, though, wasn't it. Lots of happy memories.

[Nanto2girls]

I'm like Oma, staying asleep is the problem. More often than not, I end up getting up and having a cuppa. Although I haven't been too bad this week.
Shouldn't have said that should i.

[Daisy]

Nanto - you're always an early bird. Generally if I wake at 6 am, I turn over and go back to sleep. Still, I'm glad you've had a good week. xx

[Qwerty]

I go through certain times of no sleep can go a week and then have 3days on the trot always up for the loo then, I do breathing stuff which helps taking one breath in for 3 seconds hold for 3 seconds and breathe out for 4 seconds do it 3times you might not feel sleepy but give it 10 mins and it works if not like GM cocodomol works but leaves me groggy the rest of the following day.
Gem if the rain is really beating against the Windows instead of keeping me awake I listen to it and sleep like a baby 😀 we used to have a static caravan when the kids were little and the patter of the rain on a tin roof is somehow comforting .

[Daisy]

Qwerty - we had a static caravan, too, and we used to go there all the year round. When the storms were raging in the winter it was amazing. The only thing that used to wake us up was the sound of the farmer's peacocks landing on the roof and running along it! They sounded like jumbo jets landing.